Out On The Weekend

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Second-Favorite Canadian.)

Well, it's been a long bloggish week, what with the repeated encores by the Supremes, and the extended fandango down in Texas, which seems to be returning next week for another command performance of patriarchal clownishness. Meanwhile, my pal Glenn Smith, who's been fighting the madness down there for longer than many of y'all have been alive, is pretty damned fed up with the national Democrats who don't notice Texas until somebody like Wendy Davis raises hell. Glenn writes:

So, we've been working our asses off down here and Wendy and the Democrats had a good couple of days. Then today, on my email, I'm getting flooded with DLCC and DSCC and DWhateverthefk emails raising money off of Sen. Davis. National Democrats treat Texas as an extraction economy and I am fucking sick of it. Not one person who had anything to do with these national solicitations has a clue who Wendy Davis is. So, you national Democratic fks, stick it. You can use celebrity politics to sucker Texas donors and you can sucker national donors into exploiting our celebrities. While you are at it, real people you claim to care about are getting sick and dying under GOP policies here. Children are not being educated. Women are made second-class citizens. So, Democrats, if you'll spend money in Egypt or Syria or wherever the fk where, why not Texas? I am truly sick of your celebrity obsession and your willingness to let third-world Texas fund your campaigns while people here suffer and die.

The strange tale of the Minnesota Iceman begins in 1968. A carnival attraction then being billed as "The Siberskoye Creature" began showing up at malls and fairgrounds across America. Also known as "The Creature In Ice," the exhibit appeared to be the body of a hairy Neanderthal or Bigfoot-like monster frozen in a solid block of ice inside a refrigerated coffin. The "Iceman" soon garnered the attention of scientists, the Smithsonian Institution, and even the FBI, who all wanted to get their hands on the creature. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the Iceman seemed to mysteriously vanish without a trace, and along with it all hopes of ever having the body thoroughly examined.

In Yarumal, the majority of people who develop Alzheimer's symptoms are over age 40, and some have been diagnosed as early as age 32. Most residents of this town, also scattered throughout the city of Antioquia, share the same blood line, making up an extended family of more than 5,000 people. Many of them have a rare genetic biomarker - known as the Paisa mutation - that guarantees the individual will develop the disease. The Paisa mutation is present in only about 2 percent of the world's Alzheimer's population - in Antioquia, it's present in approximately 30 percent. Reiman and his team have recruited 300 young residents of Yarumal, all over the age of 30, who have not yet developed symptoms of the disease. A third of these individuals tested positive for the Paisa mutation, and they will receive crenezumab, an experimental drug that blocks plaque formation in the brain. The remaining 200 participants, half of whom tested positive for the mutation, will receive a placebo. Another trial will be held simultaneously in the United States on people between the ages of 60 and 80 who have a different uncommon mutation - two copies of the same gene - that can greatly increase risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

This is fascinating. Also completely terrifying. It's reminiscent of nothing more than the subject populations on the islands in Lake Maracaibo that proved invaluable in isolating the Huntington's gene. I hope the people ladling out the "experimental drugs" know what they're doing.

We'll be back Monday with what I am sure will be some Wendy-related gobshitery. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Or the Minnesota Iceman gonna getcha.